


Share This World With Me

by Guardian_Rose



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, DAI characters are students, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff, Jealousy, M/M, Misunderstandings, Teacher!Fenris, Teacher!Hawke, They're all teachers from DA2
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2019-12-26 22:29:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18291515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Guardian_Rose/pseuds/Guardian_Rose
Summary: Fenris gets a teaching job at the same sixth form college as Hawke, his husband. Hawke is over the moon. They'll get to share trips to work, lunches in Hawke's classroom, they'll get to complain about marking together. It's a dream come true!But they don't exactly announce their relationship to the world, they're comfortable with each other and that's all that matters. Except. Students aren't known for keeping out of their teachers' personal lives. And not all teachers get along.What should be a cause for celebration quickly starts to fall downhill as rumours start to fly and things are left unsaid for longer than they should be...





	1. Monday

**Author's Note:**

> I have a list of who teachers what and the reasons behind every choice so if you want clarification, let me know in the comments!

Hawke smiled as he closed the front door behind him.

 

“ _Honey!_ ” He called down the hall, keys dropped onto the small cabinet and he kicked his shoes off. “I’m home!”

 

Instead of being greeted as he’d hoped, by his husband with a smile and kiss on the cheek, he was met by a deep bark and a slobbery tongue in his ear as he knelt. Biscuit continued to try and tip him over until a door closed down the hall. Biscuit backed off to barrel back down the hall to sit politely at Fenris’ feet.

 

“Why’s he behave for you? I’m the one that raised him.” Hawke sulked, readjusting his sweater as he stood back up.

 

Fenris smirked warmly, brushing past their dog to finally deliver that kiss. “I’m the one who’s spent a month at home with him all day, every day.” Another kiss, on the lips this time. “Welcome home.”

 

Hawke smiled, their noses brushing gently as he rested their foreheads together. “Thank you.”

 

“Long day?”

 

“Two breakups, three exam stress. But.” Hawke leaned back, grinning, and poked Fenris’ chest then shoulder until Fenris broke into that little grin, the one that bordered on completely unselfconscious. “ _You_ have had a much more interesting day, I expect. Did you get that phone call yet?”

 

Biscuit flopped down onto both of their feet as Fenris tried to step back, smile turning coy. Hawke tried to reach for his husband’s waist but despite being nearly overbalanced by their dog, Fenris easily slipped down the hall into the lounge. Hawke, of course, followed as soon as he’d shuffled his feet out from under the dog.

 

“Fenris? Did it go okay? Are we still waiting to hear from them?” He tripped over Biscuit again as he sat down next to Fenris on the sofa.

 

“Stop panicking.” Fenris said with a glare; he passed over a post it note, scrawled on with seemingly disjointed information.

 

A date, next Monday Hawke noted, ‘9am’, ‘practical but plain’ and ‘I got it’. Hawke blinked. Twice. Reread the messy notes, the slightly scratchy familiar handwriting telling him what he couldn’t quite believe.

 

“You got the job?” He breathed out at last, unwilling to try and bite back the elation in his voice and face.

 

Fenris covered one of Hawke’s hands with his own, a proud smile lighting up on his face. “I got the job.”

 

***

Hawke and Fenris drove in together on Monday morning, parting ways at reception as Hawke headed to the English department and Fenris was taken elsewhere to get his new ID and lanyard. They’d made sure to get there as early as possible so that Fenris could get his administrative stuff sorted before the students started arriving, give him a chance to find where to store his change of clothes for the end of the day and all of that. Hawke had packed them both a lunch each, keeping both of them with him so that Fenris didn’t have the chance to hole himself up on his own on his lunch break if the stress got to him. So, he’d expected to next see Fenris much later than in the middle of his 9am start class.

 

“Hawke.”

 

The entirety of the class turned to the door, even the students who’d been ignoring him for their phones, and Fenris, already tense, tensed even further. Hawke tried not to wince sympathetically, knowing it would only make his husband more uncomfortable.

 

“Can I have a word?” Fenris asked, stepping back and letting the door start to close before getting an answer.

 

The class started muttering amongst themselves as Hawke followed out into the corridor. A couple of students were milling around the water fountain but he didn’t pay any attention to them. Fenris was standing a couple of steps down the corridor, shoulders stiff and hands clenched into fists. He longed to reach out and unfurl them, offer up himself as a grounding point. Instead, he cracked a smile and tapped Fenris’ foot gently.

 

“I don’t know where to find a first aider.” Fenris said before Hawke could think up a joke that wouldn’t just further set his husband on edge.

 

“First day going that badly already?”

 

Fenris’ face twisted, like he was disgusted or angry at himself, it’d been years since Hawke had seen that expression on Fenris’ face and was instantly reminded as to why he hated it. “One of the kids slipped and hit her head on the wall.”

 

“Holy shit.” Hawke ran a hand through his hair. “Right, who’s with them now?”

 

“The girl’s friends. Your classroom was the closest and I didn’t know who else to ask.”

 

“Okay, go back to her and stay with her. I’ll grab Donnic to cover my class whilst I get Anders, he’s the first aid trained teacher in this block.”

 

Fenris nodded, sharp and controlled. They turned away at the same time, heading in opposite directions. Fenris back to the gym and Hawke into the classroom next door. Thankfully Donnic wasn’t teaching and was happy to step in for him. Anders on the other hand, was his typical self when Hawke popped his head through the door.

 

“First aid emergency in the gym.”

 

Anders stopped mid-sentence, his class didn’t seem to notice through their fog of boredom. “No offence, Hawke, but whilst those sweaters look great on you, you clearly haven’t been in the gym.”

 

“Not me, one of the students has hit their head. I don’t know how bad, so don’t bother asking. You coming?”

 

“Who’s going to cover?”

 

“I think they’ll cope for a few minutes if they’ve not already fallen asleep.”

 

Anders capped his marker and dropped it onto his desk. “What are you saying about my teaching?”

 

“Anders,” Hawke rolled his eyes, “this isn’t the time. Come on.”

 

By the time they arrived at the gym, the class was back playing some sort of sport, Hawke wasn’t too sure which, on one side whilst a small huddle of people were sat on the bench nearest the door. The girl - Cassandra, Hawke recognised from his second year class, who’d hit her head was stubbornly batting away the prying hands of a ginger girl sitting next to her. Fenris, who’d been crouched in front of Cassandra and her friend, stood as soon as they entered. He stepped away from the girls and Anders took his place, starting to ask rapid fire questions. Hawke took the opportunity to sidle up next to Fenris who was now switching his attention between Cassandra and the rest of his class.

 

“That doesn’t look like any sort of sport I’ve seen before.” Hawke joked as one of the boys sprinted from one end of the room to the other then chucked the ball back over his head. “Is this what you sporty types are teaching these days?”

 

“I’m not sure it is a sport.” Fenris replied, brows furrowed though whether it was due to trying to figure out the game or stress of the student injury, Hawke wasn’t sure. “They were just playing it when I got back and I thought it best to let them get on with it until this was sorted.”

 

Anders took that moment to look over his shoulder, annoyance clearly etched into his expression. “Garrett? Why are you still here?”

 

Hawke almost missed the momentary scowl from Fenris at Ander’s but not quite. He elbowed his husband gently before answering Anders. “I’m just waiting to make sure everyone’s okay.”

 

“So you’re being a mother hen, again?”

 

Fenris didn’t laugh along with Hawke, instead he cut in with a not-so-subtle glance at the girls now whispering on the bench. “Is she okay?”

 

“Fine.” Anders snapped, Hawke could feel the mood souring far too quickly for his liking. “I wouldn’t be talking to you if she wasn’t.”

 

“Have you two met yet?” Hawke asked, as breezily as possible. “I’m not sure you two have met yet. Anders, this is Fenris. Fenris, this is Anders.”

 

“Delightful.” Fenris said sourly.

***

Hawke managed to drag the snapping pair apart before first class was due for their break, ignoring Anders’ bitching as they walked back down the corridor. It was with immense relief that Hawke dropped into his chair in his own classroom which was missing some students. Donnic had apparently let them out for their ten minute break early. Which meant Hawke had a blessed five or so minutes before he had to get back to actually teaching. However, the students weren’t on the same page as him.

 

“Garrett?”

 

‘Somedays,’ Hawke thought, ‘I regret giving them permission to call me by my first name.’

 

“Yes, Mahanon?”

 

The lad was sat relatively close to the front, glasses perched on his nose and his shirt of the day was a deep green with long sleeves, one of which was tied up due to the lost arm. “Was that the new sports teacher?”

 

“There’s a new sports teacher?” Dorian, sitting next to Mahanon at the same table but looking considerably more fashionably up-to-date, spoke up lazily.

 

“Yes, not that you’d know.” Mahanon teased, stealing back the book Dorian had stolen and started writing in. “Do you know him, sir?”

 

“His name is Fenris and yes, he’s the new sports teacher.”

 

“Not a great one, clearly, if he’s managed to get a kid hurt on his first day.” Dorian sneered, earning a smack from Mahanon then an apologetic kiss on the cheek when he swore about how much it hurt and ‘fucking hell, Lavellan, remember not all of us are athletes’.

 

Hawke bristled a little but the boys’ conversation had already moved.

 

***

By the time lunch rolled around, Hawke wanted nothing more than a quite hour with his husband eating their homemade lunches. No students. No marking. No nothing. Just peace and quiet. Maybe he could even ask Fenris to read to him for a bit. Though the likelihood of him relaxing too much and falling asleep then was a bit too high. Fenris arrived on time and seemed a bit more at ease since Hawke had last seen him, he even smiled albeit briefly when he saw the post-it note Hawke’d left in his lunch. It was a beautiful plan and it’d started off perfectly. Fenris spinning slightly from side-to-side in Hawke’s desk chair whilst Hawke himself sat on the edge of the desk, their knees brushing together every so often.

 

Then there was a knock at the door. Fenris instantly tensed again. All their progress lost. But Hawke couldn’t exactly send them away, it could be a kid who needed help or, god forbid, it could be their boss. He shoved the last of his sandwich in his mouth and called out for them to come in, earning a look of disgust from Fenris to which he just smiled.

 

“Hawke!”

 

“Varric, fancy seeing you over here.”

 

The politics teacher didn’t fully close the door behind him, Hawke had half a mind to get up and do it himself but Fenris had stopped spinning with their legs pressed together and he never wanted to voluntarily stop touching him. Varric dragged a chair over but before he sat he extended an arm to Fenris across the desk.

 

“Varric Tethras, you’re the new sports teacher?”

 

Fenris eyed the hand cautiously for a second before shaking it, Hawke was distinctly proud of Varric when he didn’t flinch under Fenris’ tight grip. “Fenris.”

 

“Pleasure to meet you.” Varric sat down, grabbing Hawke’s lesson notes to peruse himself. “Fair warning, Hawke, the others are likely to follow after me when I don’t turn up in another minute or so.”

 

Hawke groaned, tipping his head back dramatically. “They’ve sent you scouting again.”

 

“Again?” Fenris asked, eyebrow quirked up.

 

“It won’t be the last time either.” Varric said without an ounce of sympathy. “You sure you read the same poem I did? ‘Cause I’m fairly certain you’ve stolen notes about a _different_ poem.”

 

Hawke twisted round on the desk, trying to grab the paper out of his friend’s hands, Varric just laughed. “What are you on about? ‘Last Lines’? Surely there’s only one, she died like right after writing it, didn’t she? Varric! Give them back!”

 

Varric shifted further to the side until he stood up to escape Hawke’s snatching hands. “So you aren’t denying that you’ve stolen these off the internet?”

 

“I was getting to that!” Hawke cried, finally giving up with crossed arms and a huff. “I made those notes myself and I’m sure it’s the right poem.”

 

“Really? Because-“

 

“There you are!”

 

“Oh god.” Hawke dropped his head into his hands; there was a consoling pat on his shin.

 

“Who’s this cutie? Where’ve you been hiding him?” Isabela crooned, fluttering her eyelashes at Fenris who’d expertly schooled his features, he didn’t even blush which Hawke _knew_ would only further pique Isabela’s interest.

 

“He’s who Blondie was bitching about earlier.” Varric supplied just as Anders stepped into the room.

 

“I told you not to call me that.”

 

“Where’s Merrill?” Hawke asked, desperate to speed up the introductions and get them over with.

 

Anders was already sending pointed glares at Fenris who was fending off Isabela’s wandering hands. Varric had returned to his chair, studiously adding to Hawke’s poetry notes like _he_ was the English lit teacher. Aveline, beautiful, calm, helpful Aveline handed Hawke a mug of tea after she’d wheeled in line with the end of the desk Hawke was perched on.

 

“With your siblings doing lord knows what.” Aveline sipped her own mug of coffee. “How come you're on your own with Fenris for lunch? I heard that you’d met when he came to you for help with Cassandra but I have to admit I didn’t expect you to be hiding him away from us.”

 

“He was anxious but - you know I love you all – but you aren’t the quietest bunch to be around on your first day. I had his lunch too.”

 

Aveline gave him a funny look but was cut across by Anders snapping Hawke’s name. First name. Again.

 

“You clearly didn’t listen to your introduction because then you’d have known to come to me instead of interrupting Garrett’s lesson! Though how on earth you managed to injure a kid on your first day is beyond me, what’d you do? Set her up for it?” Anders sneered, looking smugly at Hawke to back up his point, something flashed in his eyes when he didn’t receive the expected backing up.

 

“He came to me because he knew I’d be able to help.” Hawke said, a hint of ice deliberately set in his tone.

 

Isabela clearly hadn’t taken too kindly either as she turned her attention on him and said with faux innocence, “Anders, if I remember correctly, you couldn’t control your class on your first day and Bethany had to come and save your ass.”

 

“That does ring a bell, now you mention it.” Aveline said with a smirk.

 

Anders scowled and stood up to leave. “Fine. I’ve got to prep for my next lesson. You know where to find me if you need me.”

 

The door was left wide open behind him, as if he expected for one of them to call him back. None of them did.

 

“Ignore Anders, Fenris, he’s a dick but he has his moments.” Aveline reached across Hawke to shake Fenris’ hand and introduce herself.

 

“I’d been planning on it.” Fenris said, to Varric’s amusement and Hawke’s proud smile.

 

“Aw, you’re a good one. I think we’re going to be fine friends.”

 

***

They wasted no time in going home at the end of the day. Both of them exhausted and looking forward to warm food and possibly, Hawke was hoping, a shared bath. Fenris was silent for the whole car ride home, fingers trailing over the necklace that hung out of his now slightly unbuttoned shirt and the ring hanging onto the bottom. Neither of them stirred as Hawke killed the engine, the sun’s setting rays reflecting back on them from the house windows. Biscuit would be waiting in the hallway, ears perked from the rumble of the car. Soon enough he’d start to jump up at the door, impatient. Fenris’ hand dropped from the ring to his lap.

 

“Is it something I can help with?” Hawke asked tentatively.

 

Fenris was silent for a minute, two. “No. I’m fine.”

 

“Okay.” Hawke didn’t believe him, not completely, but he thought he knew by now when not to push. “Do you want to order takeout tonight?”

 

“I’m not very hungry.”

 

“We can always save leftovers for tomorrow’s dinner.” Hawke smiled at him. “Or I’ll eat it, gotta keep up this physique somehow.”

 

Fenris’ lips twitched with the flicker of a passing smile. “Wouldn’t want to ruin your figure.”

 

“Aha! I always knew you loved me for my body!”

 

Fenris chuckled properly this time, hand reaching for Hawke's, thumb brushing the ring. “I married you, didn’t I?”

 

Hawke beamed and stole a kiss. “I love you too.”


	2. Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sera makes a confusing appearance and Anders is looking for him, Hawke just wants to eat his lunch. Hopefully with Fenris.

Tuesday arrived sooner than wanted and Hawke parted ways with Fenris at home as Hawke needed to get in early again but Fenris didn’t have a lesson until 11. Fenris hadn’t even made it out of bed by the time Hawke was walking out the door. He’d been cheerily greeted by Merril as he’d walked in the door, he’d left the car for Fenris later, and informed that Anders was looking for him. He’d proceeded to bribe Merril with the promise to bring her to meet Biscuit soon so that she wouldn’t tell Anders she’d seen him. So far, he’d managed to avoid the man and had skipped briefing by hunkering down in his classroom with the flimsy excuse of having essays to mark. In reality, he’d been playing an online game of ludo with Isabela, who was also skipping the briefing, and Carver, who was sitting in the meeting but blatantly ignoring it.

 

Hawke cursed at the game as his brother sent one of his pieces back to the start, he’d been so damned close to getting it safe and didn’t notice the student who’d wandered in until they dropped their bag onto their desk with a bang. His head shot up, ready with his pre-planned excuse as to why he was most definitely _not_ avoiding Anders, that did not mention the lingering annoyance from how the medical science teacher had spoken to his husband. In the end he squared his jaw and raised an eyebrow, trying to look unimpressed whilst trying to not lose in their game of ludo. The student, Sera, was one of his GCSE resit kids. She was smart, if slightly immature, and he had a soft spot for her. Her tendency to outright speak her mind in all situations landed her in a lot of trouble with fellow students and teachers alike, which was somehow endearing.

 

“Look who’s turned up on time.” Hawke said. “For once.”

 

Sera stuck her tongue out at him and wandered to sit on one of the front row desks, yellow plaid leggings as normal. “I have a question.”

 

“I see,” Hawke smiled vindictively as Isabela sent back Carver’s last two pieces to the start, “I’m going to guess it doesn’t have to do with English?”

 

“You’re smart, Mr H.”

 

“Hawke or Garrett is fine, Sera.” Isabela took his final piece still on the board and he suppressed a groan, giving up on playing to give Sera his full attention. “Out with it then.”

 

“You’re married, right? You've got a ring and everythin’.”

 

One side of Hawke’s lips lifted into a bemused smile. “I am. What of it?”

 

“She make you happy?”

 

“ _He_ does. Yes, very. Why?”

 

She grinned at that, clearly even more pleased to hear he had a husband not a wife, which he’d partially expected considering the array of badges on her bag. Some of which were probably a bit too…profane for a sixth form college but Hawke wasn’t going to be the one to confiscate them or some such shit. Sera leaned forward, arms braced on the edge of the desk.

 

“Do you share a surname?”

 

Hawke crossed his arms and leant back in his chair, trying to figure out what she was angling for. Sera wasn’t one for needless interrogations, she only really put an effort into things she enjoyed. Otherwise, she complained. Loudly.

 

“Why the sudden vested interest in my love life?”

 

She rolled her eyes. “Why avoidin’ the question?”

 

He sighed, rolling his own eyes just to make her laugh a little. “No, we do not officially share a surname.”

 

“Ain’t that weird? I thought married folks were meant to, ya know, bein' family and all.”

 

“We just never got around to doing the paperwork I guess.”

 

“Anders has a ring. But he wears it on a necklace.”

 

Hawke frowned, starting to dislike where this was going. “Nice for him.” He said in a measured tone.

 

“Sera!”

 

“Ah _shite_.”

 

Hawke hurriedly closed the game window on his computer as Bethany walked into the classroom, hands on her hips as she took the two of them in.

 

“Hi Bethany.” Hawke gave a jaunty wave at his sister who turned her fierce expression on him.

 

“Don’t ‘hi Bethany’ me, Garrett. I know you and Isabela were distracting Carver with that game all through the meeting just now.”

 

Sera burst out laughing and both Hawkes turned to glare at her.

 

“You’ve gotten me in trouble now, Sera, I think you’d better go and sort whatever _this_ ,” he waved a hand at Bethany, “is all about.”

 

“You won’t put me down as late?”

 

“No, he won’t. Your attendance can’t suffer much more as it is.” Bethany muttered the last part, stepping back to hold the door open for Sera.

 

“See you later, Mr H.”

 

“See you, Sera. Stay out of trouble, yeah?”

 

“No promises!” Sera shouted gleefully from the corridor.

 

Bethany sent him a sympathetic smile. “I’ll have her back about halfway through the lesson.”

 

“She okay?”

 

“Yeah, just not been turning up to lessons again.”

 

Hawke was reminded to be glad that he wasn’t also a personal tutor to students as well as a teacher, Bethany was always being run off her feet with all the extra jobs and duties she took on.

 

“She turns up to mine.” Hawke offered with a shrug. “Normally.”

 

“A true miracle.”

 

***

 

Hawke’s luck ran out during his free period before lunch. He’d expected it, in that dejected way where you tell yourself not to hope for the best, but it still didn’t stop the swoop of disappointment when it was Anders barging into his empty classroom and not Fenris, who wouldn’t have barged in anyway. He was very formal so far, had even refused to hold his hand when they’d walked to their car last night.

 

“Garrett, there you are.” Anders stood in front of his desk, one hand on his hip in that irritating way of his. “Merrill said you weren’t in today.”

 

Hawke sighed, smoothing down his knitted jumper and resting his clasped hands on his stomach. “It’s generally best to take what Merrill says with a pinch of salt, you know that. What do you need?”

 

“Are you angry with me?” Anders asked, he was possibly trying to pull an innocent looking face but Hawke honestly couldn’t help wondering if maybe he’d stubbed his toe and was just realising. “Because I stand by what I said yesterday. That man-“

 

“Fenris.” Hawke cut in.

 

Anders ignored him. “That man clearly doesn’t care for the welfare of students if he lets them do dangerous crap that results in a _concussion_.”

 

“Cassandra was not concussed, she had a small graze on her head because Sera had untied her shoelaces before they started running and she slipped on them. It was not Fenris’ fault. Just like it wasn’t _your fault_ when two of the kids got into a fistfight over who got to sit at the back on your first day.” Anders’ face fell a little, hand dropping to his side. “Okay?”

 

“I can’t believe you’re taking his side over me, your _friend_.” Anders seemed genuinely baffled by it, Hawke could barely believe what he was hearing.

 

“Aw we’re friends?” He asked, realising he’d overstepped a line when Anders’ anger flared again, he barrelled on quickly. “Anyway! Fenris is my-“

 

They both turned to see who’d knocked at the door.

 

“-Aveline?” Hawke got up to hold the door open so the criminology teacher could fit her wheelchair through the stupidly thin doorway with a bit more ease. “I thought you had a lesson now?”

 

Aveline looked between the two men and seemed to come to one conclusion or the other. “I let them go early when they’d finished their work. Was gonna see if you wanted to grab an early lunch from the canteen?”

 

Thank god and any deity in existence. “Yes please! That sounds great, let me just grab my wallet. Anders, we’ll…well I don’t really want to continue this so I’ll just see you later, I guess.”

 

Phone and wallet safely with him in his jeans pockets, he held the door open again for Aveline and eagerly followed her into the corridor, Anders left behind. Hawke sighed in relief as they set out at a firm pace, students parting for them to go by. Aveline, setting the speedy pace at his side, looked up at him with a raised eyebrow, clearly not so impressed with him.

 

“What was all that about?”

 

“You know, I’m hoping they’re serving something with cheese today. I rather fancy some cheese.” Hawke said instead of answering, avoiding his friend’s gaze. “Mac and cheese would be awesome.”

 

“Hawke.”

 

“I should probably grab some for Fenris too, he won’t want to-“

 

“Hawke!” Aveline stopped in front of the canteen doors, blocking his way to stop him escaping. “What have you done to piss off Anders now?”

 

“Who says it’s _my_ fault?” He asked indignantly, one hand over his heart. “You wound me with your assumptions.”

 

She levelled her best ‘answer-me-or-your-foot-will-be-run-over’ face and he crumbled.

 

“He was rude to Fenris and I wasn’t going to let that stand. You wouldn’t have either except now he’s all jealous that I sided with Fenris over him. Not that this is a sides thing because it’s stupid and Anders is being whiny.”

 

Aveline considered this as she led the way into the canteen, joining the back of the small queue. Carver was at the front and gave a small wave and a tired smile before turning back to collect his food.

 

“Hey, it _is_ mac and cheese!” Hawke pointed out, delighted at his own prediction skills and at the prospect of lunch.

 

They ordered their food and took it back to Aveline’s classroom, the slightly lower desk making it easier for her to eat comfortably. Hawke, as normal, sat on one of the students’ desks, admiring the posters as he ate. Until Aveline at last spoke up.

 

“Why are you buying him lunch?” She pointed with her fork at the serving sat on the adjacent desk to his seat. “No offence, Hawke, but you don’t even buy your sibling’s lunch.”

 

Hawke frowned around a bite of garlic bread. “That’s because they never buy _me_ lunch.”

 

“Fenris has been here for a day, he can’t have bought you lunch yet.”

 

“Well no, he hasn’t but-“

 

Aveline sighed and Hawke had a feeling he wasn’t going to enjoy this conversation, though he couldn’t understand why his friends were being so weird about Fenris. He hadn’t expected them to throw Fenris a welcome party or some over-the-top shit but he also hadn’t expected them to actively _dislike_ him.

 

“Hawke. You’re married.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“I just- You need to be careful, okay? You don’t want to give off the wrong signals and get someone hurt. Or yourself hurt.” Aveline’s brows were furrowed, like she was pitying him which he knew, wasn’t difficult considering the amount of stupidity he often wound up in.

 

“Do you-“ Hawke sputtered as a thought came into his head, a truly horrific thought. “Do you think I’ve been _flirting with Anders_? Seriously? Is that what this is all about?”

 

Aveline just looked confused now. “What? No! If that’s flirting then you had no leg to stand on when you mocked me for the marigolds.”

 

Hawke narrowed his eyes. “Was that intentional phrasing or-“

 

“Go away, Hawke. I regret ever trying to have this discussion.” She waved a hand dismissively at the door though there was a large smile on her face. “Send Donnic over here if you see him.”

 

***

Hawke hovered in the gym corridor, the Styrofoam box of food carefully held and kept closed to keep it warm. Fenris’ class filed out of the gym doors and into the changing rooms, laughing and yelling lunch plans at each other. When it seemed they were done, Hawke sidled through the door, sticking close to the wall when he realised Fenris was still talking to a student. Hawke couldn’t recognise the student from any of his classes but he’d seen the lad around, he was too tall and had a loud, deep voice that wasn't very forgettable. The only thing he really knew about him was that he used to have a ‘thing’ with Dorian before Mahannon transferred. It was impossible to hear what was being said but Fenris, having noticed Hawke, wrapped it up pretty quickly, following the footsteps of his student until he closed the gym door.

 

“I brought you lunch.” Hawke said when Fenris stayed at the door, palm flat on the rough wood. “My classroom is free?”

 

“Thank you, Hawke.” The words held none of the good humour that had filled Fenris that morning, before work, when they'd been just waking up.

 

Hawke deliberated momentarily, glancing out the windows up near the ceiling because he knew that Fenris could feel the weight of his gaze and that it could be too much when they were on this knife edge. “Or…we could eat here? You have an office don’t you?”

 

Fenris hummed, not an enthusiastic yes but Hawke hadn’t expected one. A short hum was not the weary ‘no’ that he’d have said if he hadn’t wanted to eat in the office.

 

“Come on then,” Hawke pushed off the wall, “lead the way before this gets cold.”

 

***

Fenris sunk into the chair behind the desk before Hawke had even taken the room in. There were plastic boxes scattered and stacked everywhere, shrinking the already small space into effectively a prison cell. Hawke was less than impressed with how the last teacher had left it, he couldn’t even remember his name which was probably poor of him but alas, there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. He tried his best not to get caught on the box handles snapped and primed to snag passing clothing, whilst aiming to avoid kicking or tripping over the varying balls rolling around the floor. Fenris’ desk was a haven in the centre of the hurricane. Organised and neat. With only one half empty mug of cold tea. It was even on a coaster.

 

“Why are you smiling?” Fenris asked, disgruntled, and took the offered food.

 

Hawke shook his head, delighting in the small blush that crept up Fenris’ cheeks when his stomach declared its own opinions on still not eating. “Oh nothing.”

 

Fenris narrowed his eyes at him in warning but lifted the fork to his mouth still, a look of surprise crossing his face as he took his first bite.

 

“Surprisingly good, isn’t it?” Hawke said smugly.

 

Fenris rolled his eyes and focused back on his meal. The boxes really were making the room seem like the walls were continuously shrinking, it was a bit of a wonder that Fenris hadn’t refused the job on the basis that he’d be insanely uncomfortable spending long hours in this room. He could try to move them, he had all of the forty minutes of the lunch break to try and expose what he thought _could_ be a sliver of a window somewhere behind Fenris’ desk but that would disrupt the peace that his husband was clearly wholeheartedly embracing. He’d come back and do it later. Maybe with Carver. And Isabela. She was surprisingly adept at decorating. Though he still wasn’t keen to find out what the inside of her house looked like. She’d promised an ‘experience’ and really Hawke had only wanted to drop off a textbook she’d left on his desk. He was just realising that she may have done that on purpose…

 

“Sit down, Hawke.” Fenris said after clearing his throat.

 

Hawke raised an eyebrow, demonstratively _not_ sitting down. “None of the students are around, you don’t need to keep calling me by my surname.”

 

“ _Our_ surname.” Fenris corrected, seemingly unaware of the effects it had on Hawke’s heart or how he'd _never_ said  _that_ before. “Sit down. Or find something to do, you’re staring.”

 

Hawke winked, back on more stable ground. “That’s because you’re a sight that needs a whole lot of observing in order to fully appreciate your-"

 

“ _Hawke._ ”

 

“Fine, fine.”

 

Despite his best efforts to avoid touching any of the clutter, he still managed to almost cause a total tower collapse and hit his head on a rounders bat that’d been sticking out at just the right height for him to catch it but for Fenris to walk safely under. By the time he made it to standing behind Fenris’ chair, he was filled with unwarranted pride for having narrowly avoided causing a disaster. Fenris had sighed, _pointedly_ , twice and was halfway through his meal. Hawke leant down to press a kiss to the top of Fenris’ head, the white locks of hair were slipping out of their bun and he’d decided it was within his husbandly duties to fix this travesty. Though if they’d been at home he would have much more appreciation for how much Fenris suited the messy yet gorgeous look. However, it currently just emphasised how exhausted Fenris was and Hawke was _not_ appreciating that.

 

He started by carefully unknotting and unwinding the red slip of fabric that had been holding the remains of the bun in place, careful to avoid pulling too harshly. Fenris paused and tried to tip his head back in order to look at Hawke but Hawke rested a hand on the back of his neck to keep him still.

 

“What are you doing?” Fenris asked.

 

“You know what I’m doing.”

 

“Why then?”

 

Hawke tied the fabric round his own wrist for safekeeping and starting running his fingers through Fenris’ hair, smoothing out any tangles as gently as he could. Fenris’ hair wasn’t very long, just enough to reach past his shoulders a little. Hawke loved it.

 

“Can’t have you going round looking all scruffy,” Hawke tugged softly, glad when Fenris smiled even if it was probably laughing at him than with, “can we?”

 

“It’s just going to fall out again.”

 

“Mhmm, does that mean you want me to stop?”

 

Fenris was quiet for a moment. 

 

“You can carry on.”

 

Hawke laughed, leaning forward to kiss Fenris’ cheek, perfectly happy to let Fenris steal a proper kiss too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think so far!   
> Again no beta, mistakes are my own


	3. Sunday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some family bonding / arguing on one of their days off.

SUNDAY

 

“ _ Hawke. _ ”

 

“Sorry, he’s not here right now.”

 

“You just-!”

 

“Nope, wrong person. See, Hawke doesn’t exist outside of college  _ so _ …”

 

“Let me pass.”

 

Hawke turned his head a little, pointing at the general place he thought his ear was with one hand. Fenris, arms crossed and looking thoroughly grouchy, raised an eyebrow at him. The doorway, was too wide for Hawke to properly fill but by spreading his legs out he could just about hinder Fenris’ attempt to enter the kitchen. Which wasn’t something he normally did. He just didn’t want Fenris to ruin the surprise before it was even  _ ready _ . Fenris, however, couldn’t know this was his reasoning and as such was justifiably becoming a bit irate with his husband.

 

“Soon.” Hawke promised, trying to slyly use one arm behind his back to close the kitchen door. “What do you need? I can get it for you.”

 

“Or, you could just let me into my own kitchen like a normal human being.”

 

Hawke gasped as dramatically as possible. “You would wound me so with your words? Your adorable appearance hides such cruelty.”

 

The kick to his shins was  _ entirely _ deserved, even if the foot, dressed in a fluffy red sock, was part of the whole ‘adorable’ look that Fenris had going on. Along with one of Hawke’s casual button up shirts and pyjama bottoms. Comfortable Fenris was definitely Hawke’s favourite Fenris.

 

“Garrett.”

 

“Hey there we go!”

 

“If you don’t move in the next five seconds, I will make you.” Fenris smirked as Hawke visibly swallowed, shifting his weight a little. “Five…”

 

“Now, Fen, let’s think about thi-“

 

“Four…”

 

Hawke finally,  _ finally _ , felt his fingers hit the door handle. With minimal twisting he managed to pull it securely shut behind him as Fenris hit one. The now closed door saved Hawke from falling onto his ass when Fenris, wily bastard that he was, pushed up against Hawke’s chest to lean his weight against him whilst on tip toes, his lips trailing up the side of Hawke’s neck. Sometimes a teasing brush of warmth, sometimes lingering, nipping at the skin as he reached  _ that spot _ . The one that Hawke had entertained tattooing with Fenris’ name so that  _ everyone _ knew that only Fenris was ever allowed there. Fenris’ hands were making quick work of sliding under his shirt and spreading across his chest, slightly chilly but oh so welcome. Hawke, having regained his balance by leaning back against the door, dipped his fingers under the waistband of Fenris’ trousers, somewhere in the back of very distracted mind wishing there were belt loops to tug Fenris even closer.

 

Fenris leaned back against Hawke’s arms to grin up at him. Hawke grinned dopily back, bringing one hand up to brush away the strands of hair that had fallen in front of Fenris’ beautiful eyes, eyes that kept flickering back to Hawke’s lips. Even after all these years, he still waited for Hawke to make it abundantly clear what he wanted rather than taking it for granted.

 

“I should block doorways more often.” Hawke murmured, resting their heads together. “I mean if this is--“

 

“Shut up, Garrett.”

 

“Only ‘cause you asked nicely.”

 

Fenris pinched his side and leant up onto his toes again, kissing him as if he’d drown without Hawke there. Without Hawke holding him up, matching him kiss for kiss, loving him. Hawke couldn’t imagine a better way to spend a Sunday. Or any day for that matter. Picking up on Fenris’ silent request, Hawke pulled back for the small amount of time it took Fenris to tug his t-shirt up and over his head, Fenris cast it away somewhere behind them. Or maybe next to them. He hadn’t paid attention further than tugging Fenris back in with a hand on the back of his neck. Fenris’ arms wound themselves around Hawke’s neck, making the angle a little easier but the crick Hawke knew would develop in his neck would hinder them later. So, in a well-practiced manoeuvre, Hawke lifted Fenris up into his arms, deceivingly strong legs wrapping round his waist. He walked them backwards, biting his lip as Fenris launched a full-on  _ assault _ on his newly bared collarbones and neck. The red fabric dangling from Fenris’ wrist was a faint tickle on his back, easily ignored but it would be gapingly evident if it were missing. It was a struggle to keep focused on not walking into the dining table and was a relief when he settled Fenris onto it, the legs around his waist locking together and pulling him closer and closer and  _ closer _ .

 

“For  _ fucks sake! _ ” The shout cut through the pleasant haze Hawke had lost himself in, he felt Fenris tense underneath him. “Get a room!”

 

“I’m going to kill him.” Fenris hissed against Hawke’s still hovering lips. “He’s dead to me.”

 

Hawke, reigning in his frustration as much as possible, opened his eyes and leaned back, not that Fenris had let him go so _ really _ he tilted back enough to see Carver standing, looking disgustedly scandalised, in their hallway.

 

“This  _ is _ our room. This is  _ our house _ .” Hawke said as calmly as he could through gritted teeth. “What the fuck are  _ you _ doing here?”

 

“You gave me a key!” Carver waved around his set of keys and keychains.

 

“For emergencies! Or to water the plants when we aren’t here!”

 

“You never specified that!”

 

“I didn’t think I had to!” Hawke snapped, Fenris dropped his head against Hawke’s chest so he lifted one of his hands to run his fingers through his husband’s loose hair. “ _ Is _ there an emergency?”

 

“No,” Carver said, looking a little bashful now.

 

Fenris mumbled something, the puffs of air tickling slightly. Hawke sighed deeply.

 

“Carver.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Go away.”

 

“Will do, Bethany says you two better come round for dinner tonight though.”

 

Hawke tried not to grimace at the prospect of dinner with his siblings, Fenris had no such qualms and groaned in annoyance. Family dinners were fine, in theory. But Hawke’s siblings shared a small flat and something always went wrong with the meal or someone drank too much or someone, namely Bethany, brought out Monopoly as their idea of a good time. It had been with great joy that Hawke had moved out of that apartment to live with Fenris in this big old house, even if it was fucking freezing in the winter.

 

“Fine.” Hawke waved his free hand to dismiss Carver. “Off you go now.”

 

“You might want to check whatever’s causing that smoky smell, just thought I’d mention before I left.” Carver said, laughing to himself as he locked the door behind him.

 

Hawke swore and disentangled himself from Fenris, who whined, actually  _ whined _ , at the loss of contact. At any other time that would’ve been more than heart-breaking enough for Hawke to ignore the rest of the world. Except, his cookies were burning.

 

***

 

Dinner with his siblings quickly devolved into drinks and a board game, as it often did. This week’s game of choice (Carver’s choice specifically) was Scrabble. Hawke had protested to begin with but when the other given option was Monopoly, he caved pretty quickly. He and Fenris were on one team then the other Hawke siblings were each playing on their own. This was the unspoken split that they’d developed when Hawke had started bringing Fenris along to their family game nights once a month. At the start it had been a slight necessity as. whilst Fenris could speak fluently, he struggled with reading and writing which was an unfair disadvantage when playing a game such as Scrabble. To counterbalance this, Hawke had partnered up with him and it had stuck. Even now when Fenris was more often than not the one of them to come up with the best, most unusual words to play. Hawke loved it. Loved seeing his husband so much more confident in himself and around the twins.

 

Tonight however, Fenris was out for vengeance. They were sat on the giant rug Bethany kept from their childhood home, the small coffee table just about accommodated the spinning board whilst leaving space for each player to keep their row of letters hidden and on the table. The Scrabble dictionary was somewhere inbetween Bethany and Carver on the other side of the table to Hawke and Fenris, Fenris had only asked to use it twice so far and the board was half full already.

 

“Twenty four points,” Fenris said, a sense of smug satisfaction seeping into his deep voice.

 

Hawke, leaning back on his hands in order to just watch his husband play for them, grinned at Carver who was scowling at them both. Fenris started rearranging his new letters from the bag meanwhile Bethany stood up with a groan, empty wineglass dangling from her fingers.

 

“I’m going to just bring the bottle in,” she said, “I’ve got no hope of winning at this point anyway.”

 

Hawke winced in sympathy, it wasn’t really fair that Bethany was also being completely screwed over by Fenris’ ruthless placement tactics, but at least Beth wasn’t as low on points as Carver. She rolled her eyes when she caught him looking and wandered off to the kitchen. He had half a mind to follow her but his feet were in Fenris’ lap and Fenris had one hand idly fiddling with the cuff of Hawke’s jeans, he didn’t particularly want to interrupt his husband’s fierce concentration by moving.

 

“You’ve got to be cheating!” Carver cried moments later when Fenris had scored another double-digit score. “I bet that’s not even a word!”

 

Fenris snorted and shook his head, his short ponytail swaying from side to side; Hawke’s fingers itched to run through the strands. Instead he tipped his head to the side to catch his brother’s attention.

 

“Just because it’s not one of your fancy law words,” Hawke drawled, “doesn’t mean it’s not a real word.”

 

“Oh yeah? Then what’s it mean?”

 

“It’s an acidic layer on hummus,” Fenris supplemented before Hawke could snipe back.

 

Bethany returned, bottle in hand but she’d lost her glass somewhere. Hawke waved his hand at her, trying to grab the bottle as she went by but missed; Bethany looked him dead in the eye as she took a swig from the bottle and set it down out of his reach. He pouted at her, ignoring his husband and brother snapping at each other.

 

“You’ve been spending too much time with Isabela,” he said.

 

“Someone had to distract her from trying to get Merrill drunk on Friday, seeing as you skipped out on drinks night.” Bethany’s smile was teasing, only a little heat behind it.

 

“It was just one week. It can’t have been that bad.”

 

Bethany laughed, which caught the other men’s attention.

 

“What’s so funny?” Carver asked.

 

Fenris turned to look at Hawke, eyebrows raised, but Hawke could only shrug. He wasn’t sure what he’d said to set her off, he hadn’t  _ intended _ to make a joke.

 

“Garrett thinks drinks night was  _ fun _ without him,” Bethany got out at last, prompting Carver to bark out a laugh as well.

 

Hawke frowned in confusion, pushing himself up so he could cross his arms grumpily. “I feel very left out right now.”

 

“I’m going to assume, Hawke,” Fenris said quietly, “that drinks night wasn’t actually fun.”

 

“I mean, of ‘course it wasn’t,” Hawke said. “I wasn’t there, I’m the life and soul of drinks night. But I didn’t think I was that necessary to having a good time.”

 

Fenris smirked wickedly at him, the twins calming down in the background. “You’re necessary for  _ many _ good times, Hawke.”

 

Hawke blinked at him, jaw agape and eyes wide.

 

“You’ve spent too much time with me,” he said at last.

 

“Or Isabela,” Fenris winked at him.

 

Hawke narrowed his eyes at him. “Have you even met Isabela?”

 

“Monday lunch. She’s very…touchy.”

 

“And suddenly I’m much more interested in the other conversation! Bethany,” Hawke moved one of his feet to try and reach to nudge her knees, “what’s so funny?”

 

Bethany and Carver looked at him like they couldn’t believe he wasn’t getting it, which was a little insulting if he was being honest. It wasn’t like anyone had called or texted him on Friday, or even Saturday or today, to tell him something hilarious or ridiculous had happened.  Which, now he thought about it, was a bit out of character for Varric, seeing as he normally text him from across the table  _ at  _ drinks night so surely he’d have kept him up-to-date when he  _ wasn’t _ there? His siblings shared a look then Carver shrugged and started speaking.

 

“Well, Anders was moping all evening. Not even Merrill could cheer him up. Isabela fleeced us all at cards as normal but Varric wasn’t really paying attention ‘cause he and Aveline were having some sorta whispered argument.”

 

“They called it a debate when we asked,” Bethany cut in.

 

“Fine, whatever, a debate. So they weren’t helping to keep a happy atmosphere. Isabela was trying to get Merrill drunk ‘cause you weren’t there to stop her so Beth was stuck helping Merrill not fall out her seat. I had to get the tab at the end of the night ‘cause Varric was still distracted with Aveline. I think it might have something to do with him wanting to model one of his books after Donnic. Who, by the way, also couldn’t come so I was on my own most of the night.”

 

There was a moment of stunned silence at the end of Carver’s rant, broken only by Carver’s slightly heavier breathing.

 

“Why was Anders moping? Has another cat died?” Hawke asked at last, figuring it was easier to take this one step at a time except for some reason his question earned him a glare from Fenris  _ and _ from Bethany. “Sorry, did I miss something?”

 

Bethany mutely shook her head, reaching for the bottle again. Fenris also didn’t answer, distracting Carver by snapping at him to make his move so they could finish the game and go get  _ some _ sleep before college tomorrow. Hawke watched as they all turned away, still wondering where he’d gone wrong.

***

Fenris had been a lot more sullen for the rest of the night. Even on the walk home he wasn’t really paying attention to what Hawke had been saying. To be fair he had been rambling mostly nonsense just to try and get Fenris to laugh. It had been to no avail. Fenris had slipped away when they’d gotten home, leaving Hawke to calm the newly awoken Biscuit down again. To say he was worried was a bit of an understatement but he also knew that he could overreact quickly when it came to Fenris, that their slightly unstable start had left him with one or two leftover insecurities that would crop up at times like this. He’d gotten a lot better over the years at parsing out when Fenris was actually upset with him from the times he just needed a bit of space to relax. He wasn’t entirely sure which this was, yet, but Fenris had wandered off to the bedroom so he’d let him be for now. There were a couple of breakfast dishes left to wash and he could make them some mugs of tea before bed, that would take a little while at least.

 

Biscuit was asleep in the dog bed at the end of the hall, outside their semi-closed bedroom door. Hawke took a moment to make sure his hold on the mugs wasn’t slipping before toeing the door open and closed behind him. He stood for a second in the doorway, letting his eyes adjust until he could easily make out the shape of Fenris lying on his stomach under the duvet. Hawke supressed the unbidden smile that threatened his composure. Fenris was on Hawke’s side of the bed. By the time he’d set the mugs down on either nightstand and had changed into his pyjamas, Fenris had sat up against the headboard, hands clasped in his lap and eyes following Hawke’s every move. He was back on his side of the bed.

 

“Tired?” Hawke asked in a whisper, lifting up the duvet to slip in next to his husband.

 

Fenris nodded. He seemed conflicted for a moment, his brow furrowing before relaxing again as he moved to rest his head on Hawke’s shoulder, reaching to hold one of Hawke’s hands in both of his. The warm flutter in his heart was accompanied by a heavy drop of worry. Hawke squeezed Fenris’ hands.

 

“Do you want to talk about anything?” He murmured, pressing a kiss to the top of his husband’s head, the loose hair tickling his nose slightly.

 

“I’m fine,” Fenris whispered back.

 

They sat quietly for a while, their breaths naturally falling into a matching rhythm. Hawke kissed him again. Just to be sure.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all are enjoying this so far! Let me know in the comments below!
> 
> Got any theories about what's gonna happen? Want more focus on a particular character/friendship? Let me know! <3


	4. Monday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aveline the conspiracy theorist stages a confrontation.

MONDAY

Hawke typically held low expectations for Mondays. Very low expectations. That way when there were no emergencies or injuries he could call the day a success. Yet, even with these easily possible targets set, Hawke couldn’t stop from imagining how much better his day would be if he could crawl back to bed despite the clock barely ticking past nine. In the _morning_. He and Fenris had been tormented by nightmares and as such had gotten very little sleep between them; both were light sleepers and both would rather try to suffer alone and let the other sleep rather than accept help in the moment. Which led to old wounds weeping. Normally, a cup of coffee ready and work ahead, they’d each have time apart to work through their frustration on their own at their respective jobs. It used to work because they weren’t actually angry at each other for any logical reason, just stress and exhaustion and bitter memories. However, now they could only stalk away in different directions in the same building.

His class were surprisingly early, most of them settled in their seats and quietly talking to one another before he’d even sorted out projecting his short presentation onto the board, he wasn’t a fan of strict structure and preferred encouraging his students to talk about the text with him. To argue and debate with him. Usually he loved it, loved how informal his students were with him. How honest. But right then? Right then, he wanted to be in bed, he wanted to not be sickeningly annoyed at Fenris and vice versa, he wanted a quiet lesson to sulk and wallow in his own misery for a bit. He most definitely _did not_ want to be dealing with the fight that seemed to be heating up outside his classroom.

A vain hope, he came to realise quickly, when Solas breezed into class, looking calm and collected as ever. Only for Lavellan to storm in, the complete antithesis of his friend, and slam down into his seat. Hawke had been on the receiving end of Mahanon Lavellan’s anger only once and he had not enjoyed it, even though he was a full-grown adult thank you very much. Mahanon wasn’t physically aggressive but he built himself up to intimidate and his words were as devastating as any punch. Dorian trailed in lastly, head bowed and looking oddly sombre. A lover’s spat then. Hawke tried not to be obvious as he watched Dorian whisper something to Mahanon out of the corner of his eye, Mahanon scowled even more and shook his head.

Then the door opened again just as Hawke stood, as ready as he’d ever be to start the lesson. Varric waved at him, beckoning. Hawke restrained himself from rolling his eyes and told the class to re-read the poem they were starting with before following after Varric. He kept one foot in the doorway, stopping it from closing.

“I’ve got the right poem this time, Varric, no need to worry,” Hawke said, doing his best to pull together some of his normal energetic humour.

Varric didn’t laugh.

“Never doubted you, Hawke. Look, I know Aveline’s already talked to you—”

“Oh Maker, not you _too_.”

“—but she’s got plans to corner you at lunch again. So, generous friend I am, I’m going to sit in on your lesson before lunch so I’m there when she arrives.”

Hawke frowned a little in confusion, a sharp burst of laughter came from the classroom. “She’s not going to try and kill me, is she?”

“No,” Varric said, smiling but there was still something heavy weighing on him, “not right away anyway. Just, I wouldn’t invite Fenris to have lunch with us today.”

A sigh escaped him, both at the prospect of talking with Aveline and of the reminder of his love life. “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem today anyway.”

“Oh? How—” Varric began but was interrupted by an eruption of shouting inside the classroom.

_“Stop it, Cole, stay out of it!”_

_“Leave him alone, Dorian! He’s just trying to help.”_

Hawke ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath.

 _“People,”_ that was Dorian practically infusing the word with disgust, _“trying to ‘help’ are the reason this is even happening!”_

“I’ll see you later, Hawke. Good luck,” Varric gave him a cocky salute and headed back down the hall.

“I’m going to fucking need it,” Hawke muttered under his breath before marching back into the room. “What the bloody hell is going on in here?”

His students froze. Most had been watching the display the boys had been putting on and now desperately tried to hide behind their poetry books. The boys in question had no such qualms in trying to hide the situation. Dorian and Mahanon were standing behind their desk, practically breathing the same air; Dorian’s arms were crossed tightly across his chest whilst Mahanon’s jaw was clenched and his fists shaking at his sides. Cole, sitting at the desk behind them on his own, looked like a kicked puppy. The only other person not sticking their head into the metaphorical sand was Solas, who seemed to be appraising the situation with a raised eyebrow. Hawke closed the door and walked to stand in the middle of his meagre floorspace, out of the glare of the projector, with his hands on his hips. The hum of his computer and Mahanon’s heavy breathing, slowing every second, practically echoed round the room.

“Well?” He prompted, looking from Dorian and Mahanon and back. “Is someone going to tell me or do I have to guess? Because, trust me, you don’t want me to make assumptions.”

Dorian exhaled sharply and turned to face him. “Nothing. Sir.”

“’Sir’?” Hawke quirked his brow, meeting the boy’s rebellious glare head on.

“It’s just a misunderstanding. We’re sorry for disrupting your lesson.” Mahanon jumped in, dropping back down into his seat.

“Cole? Do you feel like filling me in?” Hawke tried instead when Dorian also sat down.

Cole seemed to think about it before shaking his head, eyes downcast and fingers fiddling with his hat. Hawke took a deep breath to settle himself before turning on his heel to grab his book from his desk.

“Cole, put your hat back on, you know I don’t give two shits about the uniform code,” he said gruffly over his shoulder, “and Solas, read your damned poem.”

***

The rest of the lesson went relatively smoothly, if quietly. He gave up trying to ignite a conversation about the text as they came to the break and told them to write a timed essay when they came back instead. In silence. There was a part of him that had hoped Dorian and Mahanon would kiss and make up over the ten minute break so they could stop icing the entire damned room with their tension. Alas, they came back still steaming and giving each other the cold shoulder. Solas, smug annoying bastard he was, came back and finished his essay in half an hour despite not contributing at all in the first part of the lesson or seeming to have actually picked up his book. Hawke dismissed him early just to avoid having to think up something else for him to do. A couple others finished early too but most took the full hour, Cole being one of them. He walked his essay up to Hawke’s desk personally to hand it over, hat hiding his face in part.

“Are you okay, Cole?” Hawke asked as he accepted the paper.

“I’m fine,” he replied, tilting his head to the side slightly, expression pained still. “It’s them who aren’t. I just wanted to help.”

Hawke smiled warmly at him, he liked Cole. He was sweet and empathetic. Painfully so at times.

“I’ll talk to them, don’t worry.”

“And what about you?”

“What?” Hawke’s smile slipped into confusion.

“You’re hurting. Fighting with your husband too,” Cole said it as if it were commonplace knowledge. The sky is blue. Merrill is ditsy. Hawke’s fallen out with Fenris.

“How do you-?”

“Was I not meant to know? I’m sorry,” Cole backed away, fingers fluttering under his too-long sleeves at his sides, “I hope you two make up. And them.”

Then he was gone, out the door, and Hawke was distracted by another student handing over her paper. He smiled and thanked her. He spotted Dorian packing his stuff in a rush over her shoulder and walked over to intervene. Mahanon glanced up at him from where he was signing his name on the pages he’d used ready for hand-in but studiously dropped his gaze just as quickly. Dorian didn’t make any sign that he’d noticed him until Hawke picked up his phone from the table. That got his attention.

“If this is because I called you ‘sir’ earlier, I really think you need to re-evaluate your life’s priorities if a grudge with a student is so high up,” Dorian sniped.

Mahanon snapped at him to shut up. Dorian rolled his eyes.

“I’m going to be honest with you both,” Hawke said, still holding on to Dorian’s phone. “I’m having a shitty day myself, but still I’m not arguing with my husband in the middle of the school canteen.”

“That’s ‘cause you’re avoiding him.” Mahanon mumbled, Hawke politely chose to pretend he hadn’t heard.

“What I mean is, I clearly cannot fix all your problems. But I can give you some advice. Instead of taking it out on others, namely Cole, talk to each other. Or give each other some space and _then_ talk. You each have different friends, yeah? Go and hang out with them for the rest of the day. Then, when you don’t feel like stamping on each other’s feet and pointing fingers, talk.”

Both boys were blushing a little with embarrassment by the end, which Hawke took to mean he’d done _something_ right at least.

“Talking to friends is sort of what got us into this mess…” Mahanon said softly, looking up at Dorian for the first time in hours with those wide eyes of his. “We haven’t really talked to each other. Just sort of…”

“Well, I’m glad I could at least steer you in the right direction,” Hawke said a bit more cheerfully. “Now off you go, stay here any longer and you’ll be as trapped as me.”

***

Varric did as promised and turned up to observe his next lesson, a first year class he hadn’t gotten to know very well yet. He’d had observers numerous times before but Varric was unique. In that, Varric didn’t just sit back and watch the class with the occasional added point, no that wasn’t his style at all. If Varric was in the class, they ended up co-teaching. Hawke had asked him often enough why he didn’t just teach English as well, or start a creative writing class, but Varric deflected every time. The man had published books, for god’s sake, but still the closest Hawke had gotten to a real answer was when he’d gotten the man drunk and Varric had let slip that he’d made someone a promise. Briony? Bianca? Briana? Something like that. He’d eventually stopped pushing.

The lesson went by in a blur and by the time they dismissed the class, Hawke had laughed more than he had in a long while. He sat on the edge of his desk, whilst Varric took the chair, so he could watch the door for Aveline’s imminent arrival.

“Do you think she’ll bring lunch?” He asked after five minutes had elapsed.

“Dunno,” Varric said, looking up from the essays he’d voluntarily started marking for Hawke. “Depends how pissed she is at you.”

“I don’t even know _why_ she’s angry at me. Why’s it always me?”

“You’ve just got that sort of roguishly charming personality, Hawke.”

Another couple of minutes went by, Hawke’s stomach sounded its displeasure at not eating once and Varric stifled a laugh at the essays twice. Eventually the door was pushed open and Aveline wheeled in, three canteen to-go boxes stacked on her lap. Hawke jumped up and grabbed the top box, handing it to Varric, rushing through greetings and thanks in his hungry haste, before taking the offered second for himself. He’d barely swallowed a mouthful before Aveline had closed the lid of his box to get his attention. He shrunk a little under her stoney gaze, feeling like she was looking down into his soul. Even though he had pushed aside half his stuff so he could sit cross legged on his desk.

“Let the poor man eat first, Aveline,” Varric piped up. “He’s already having a bad day.”

“I know but I can’t let this go on any longer than I already have,” Aveline said, a tinge of sadness and regret to her words; Hawke was seriously missing a part of the puzzle, the one everyone else had seemingly solved last week, and it was starting to grate on him. “Hawke…”

He couldn’t resist cracking a smile, as charming as possible. “That’s my name.”

Aveline sighed and started again. “Hawke. You’re married. You’re _legally_ married. You talk about your husband all the time and you obviously have your ring,”

Hawke was suddenly struck with the notion that Aveline had been compiling _evidence_ against him. Like he was a case study in her class. A chill settled on his shoulders down to his stomach. He set his food aside, the notion of hunger empty and strange all of a sudden.

“Yes. I am.”

What if she didn’t like Fenris? What if she _hated_ him? Or worse, what if she’d known him in the past? Before Fenris’…traumas. Fenris could never have recognised her but she’d have recognised him and what if--?

“Happily?”

“Very.” He said it with absolute certainty; even if this conversation was completely baffling, Fenris and his utter devotion to the man was forever a certainty. “Just ask Bethany or Carver, they’ll tell you how sickeningly sweet we are over each other. Just last night we—”

“Then why are you cheating on him?”

Hawke choked on his own words, spluttering through his next breath. “ _What?_ ”

Aveline’s expression was spilling over with pity, like she thought Hawke needed to be handled with the utmost fragile care about this- this _situation?_ Varric, in his honourable defence, whacked Hawke on the back so he could repeat his incredulous question with a heap more vehemence.

“I’m _not_ cheating on him!” He cried, he turned to Varric. “Do you think this nonsense too?”

“I didn’t, and still don’t, agree with her, Hawke. But…” Varric’s mild shrug was devastating.

“Hawke, you have to understand,” Aveline reached for his knee, as if to try and placate him, “you and Fenris hitting it off so soon after he arrived, you buy him lunch and eat together, just the two you. You come and go from here together, in the same _car_.”

“Of course we do!”

“You have a husband at home, Hawke. Who loves you. And I always thought you loved him too, you talk about him all the time. It’s always ‘my husband’ did this and ‘my husband’ said that. Can you honestly say you’d throw it all away?”

“Stop,” Hawke dropped his head into his hands, things were starting to click into place at last and he wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. “Aveline.”

“I know this is hard. But you said sometimes friends push, so that’s what I’m doing. What would your husband say if he overheard you on the phone or something and found out?”

Laughter. Laughing was definitely the way to go.

“Shit,” Varric’s hand was back on his shaking back, “Hawke, you alright?”

“By the Maker,” Hawke lifted his head at last, tears were in his eyes; Aveline recoiled in shocked confusion, “he’d probably ask why I was calling him instead of just walking from the bedroom to the kitchen to talk to him, again.”

Aveline blanched. “What?”

“Oh you sly bastard.” Varric swore again before starting to laugh too.

Hawke calmed himself down enough to try to catch Aveline up on what Varric had clearly pieced together. “ _Fenris is my husband_. I’m not cheating on Fenris with Fenris. That’s impossible and frankly, I’d die before betraying him. Have I truly never mentioned him by name before?”

Aveline looked mortified, there was even a blush on her cheeks as she shook her head. Hawke did his best to suppress his laughter, he didn’t want to make her feel too bad about it. After all, she’d been trying to protect Fenris and himself, she was a brilliant friend. If a little off the mark.

“This is better,” Varric got out between chuckles, “than those void-forsaken _marigolds_.”

***

Hawke practically flounced into Fenris’ lesson as soon as Fenris let his class, and Isabela, go for a quick break, no one needed to know that he’d been loitering outside listening to Fenris and Isabela teach some self-defence for the past twenty minutes because he wasn’t sure when the class would be let out. No one but Hawke and whoever was monitoring the CCTV cameras. If anyone was. He wasn’t actually sure, did they hire someone to do that? Or was it just the caretaker in their spare time? Who _was_ the caretaker?

“Hawke? Hawke.” Fenris snapped his fingers in front of his face, making him jump.

“Yes?”

Fenris frowned at him, the tiny one that was basically a concerned down-tip of his lips and a confused furrow of his brow. It was adorable.

“Did you need something?”

“No?” He hadn’t intended to sound that uncertain, it’d meant to be more coy and sweet and would’ve made Fenris smile except now he was remembering that they were fighting and Fenris may still be pissed at him. “I mean yes. Yep, I have a definite reason to be here.”

“Which is?” Fenris crossed his arms, closing himself off, and Hawke _really_ couldn’t remember why they’d been fighting and _honestly_ just wanted to kiss him because Fenris hadn’t kissed him or wanted to be kissed or touched all day so Hawke hadn’t because he respected his husband’s wishes and boundaries and—

“First, can we agree we aren’t fighting anymore? Unless you have something you want to say then do and I’ll make it up to you and then I can tell you my news and we can laugh and—”

Fenris kissed him. In the middle (well, the side) of the gym. Where anyone could walk in. Fenris hated overly affectionate public displays, unless he’d been drinking. But he was kissing him. And Hawke was wasting it thinking rather than doing what he actually wanted and tugging Fenris closer by his open jacket and chasing after Fenris’ lips and leaning down that little bit and…perfect. This was what he’d been missing all day. This reassurance of love and affection, strong and unrelenting. Demanding and accepting.

Someone whistled behind them and Fenris leaned back out of Hawke’s reach. “Oh no, don’t stop on my account, keep it up!”

“Isabela.” Fenris sighed, fully stepping back now.

Hawke, mourning the loss deeply and finding himself yearning to return home and to bed for entirely different reasons than he had that morning, turned to face Isabela. She stood, leaning back against the closed door, clever woman, and she was grinning wolfishly.

“So,” she drawled, winking at Hawke, “what Aveline’s been saying is true after all.”

Hawke sighed loudly and lifted his hand up to point between his ring and Fenris. “No. It’s not. _Fenris_ is my husband.”

Fenris barked a laugh as realisation dawned on Isabela’s face. “What did Aveline think?”

“She thought Hawke was cheating on his husband with _you_ ,” Isabela crowed, clearly smug at Aveline’s inevitable embarrassment. “Oh, this is _brilliant_!”

“That would explain why she’s been asking such strange questions,” Fenris mused.

Hawke quirked a brow at him. “What strange questions?”

“Hawke!” Isabela called, hand on her stomach like she’d been bent double with laughter. “Does Anders know?”

Fenris’ smile dropped.

“I have a horrible feeling, Isabela,” Hawke said, watching Fenris in his periphery, “that we’re going to have to make a public service announcement or some such dastardly stunt to get everyone up to date.”

“Well if you both come to lunch in Aveline’s room tomorrow you can do a repeat performance of just now. That should clear everything up.”

Hawke was so used to Isabela’s leers and teasing by now that he just rolled his eyes at her suggestion, Fenris shifted on his feet beside him.

“Now obviously this doesn’t go for all of her plan but if we trade the kissing for say…words, we could sort this out tomorrow? Embarrass Aveline a bit more. Varric can tell you my honest, okay not completely honest, reaction to what she said, could be fun?” Hawke asked.

“Everyone?”

“Well, all the staff in this building. Though Bethany and Carver obviously already know.”

Fenris hummed in thought for a moment before nodding. “Fine. We’ll tell them tomorrow.”

 

***

“Garret?”

“Carver! Is Bethany there too?”

“Why?”

“You don’t have to sound so suspicious. What are you even being suspicious about?”

“Fine. Yes, she’s here. I’ll pass the phone over though why you didn’t just call _her_.”

“No! No, I need both of you on the phone. Put me on speaker.”

“Carver? I told you, it’s your turn to cook and ordering a takeaway does _not_ count—who’s on the phone?”

“You’re on speaker.”

“Garrett?”

“Bethany! Brilliant. Right. So, I have a quick couple questions I was hoping you could both help me with.”

“Why didn’t you ask at college?”

“Carver. Some things cannot be discussed surrounded by students.”

“Garrett, ignore Carver. Just ask us already.”

“Have you talked to Aveline today?”

“No?”

“No.”

“Did you talk to her last week?”

“Still no but Carver’s doing that funny smile so I think he may have.”

“Oh really now? Carver? Care to share with the class?”

“She _may_ have come to discuss something with me on Wednesday.”

“Keep going, brother dearest.”

“And I _may_ have omitted some information that would have cleared some stuff up. Namely who you’re married to.”

“Oh! I think I _do_ know what this is about! Is this how all the students think Anders and Garrett are secretly married?”

“What?”

“Bethany! No! Not at all.”

“Sorry!”

“Anyway, Aveline had her concerns about you and Fenris ‘cause she—”

“No! No, let’s just rewind here, Carver. Bethany? What are you—”

“Well! Looks like dinner’s finished cooking! Time to go, let’s go Carver.”

“Bethany!”

“See you tomorrow, Garrett!”

“Beth—”

Hawke lowered his phone, the ‘call ended’ staring up at him. He scowled and begrudgingly went to do the dishes before Fenris got back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How's everyone finding the pacing? Do you feel like things are progressing? 
> 
> How about character balancing? Do you feel like you're seeing too much of one character and too little of another? Let me know! 
> 
> Thank you for continuing to read this, as always, I'm around on my tumblr if you ever wanna shoot me a message <3


	5. Tuesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a day of revelations for Hawke, meanwhile Fenris starts to acclimatise to teaching.

Despite not having to teach until midday, Fenris was adamant about going into college with Hawke first thing in the morning. Hawke had asked why, had teased rather than admit to the nerves about what he’d done to upset Fenris to the extent that his husband had barely said two words to him. He hadn’t thought that Fenris would be worried about telling their co-workers they were married. After all, they’d both assumed they already knew and Fenris had been fine with that. So what had he done to screw it up?

“You’re moping.”

“You’re annoying.”

“You’re not meant to talk to students that way.”

“What do you want, Sera?” Hawke looked up from his empty mug. “And friends?”

The girl next to Sera, dressed to the nines in what he expected people (Dorian) would call ‘high fashion’ but to him just looked ‘cold’, scrunched her nose up and shook her head.

“Not friends,” she said, taking a side-step away from Sera who just scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“Alright…” Hawke looked between them, they were definitely opposites. “Then what’s the matter?”

“Lavellan was saying how you were in a pissy mood yesterday,” Sera frowned at this, like she was personally offended by Hawke’s bad mood, “thought you’d be over it by now.”

Hawke smothered a sigh and flashed her the best smile he could muster; she narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. “I’m fine. I’m more worried that for the second week in a row, you’re here on time. What did Bethany threaten you with?”

“Me.”

Sera’s ‘not friend’ perched on the edge of the desk, primly crossing her legs. A stark contrast to Sera’s feet on the desk she was fully sitting on with her knees pulled up under her chin.

“She set prissy-pants ‘ere to follow me. Make sure I go to lessons after hangin’ out with ‘em.”

“I didn’t know you spent time with Mahanon,” Hawke paused mid-sentence to glance down as his phone buzzed on the desk, weird, “I definitely can’t imagine you getting along with Dorian or Cole.”

“It gets better,” the ‘not-friend’, he really needed to get her name, “you should see her trying to avoid talking with Solas.”

Sera huffed loudly and Hawke’s phone buzzed again. He continued to ignore it.

“Look, I’m in my lesson. You can go now.”

There was a beat of silence, a cursory check that Sera had in fact deposited her bag under the desk in the aim of staying, and sighed. “Yes, I suppose you are. I’ve got politics now so I’ll let Mahanon know to come pick you up at the end of this block.”

Hawke watched her leave before turning back to Sera, who was now throwing a pencil up into the air again and again.

“My sister has never struck me as the sort of person to assign babysitters to students before,” he said, trying to look uninterested by sliding his mug away to join his, infrequently buzzing, phone next to one of his short stacks of books.

“That’s ‘cause she didn’t,” the pencil fell to the floor and Sera slipped off the desk onto her feet, her ridiculously thinly-soled shoes barely making a tap on the ground, “she said she couldn’t keep pleading my case if I didn’t start turnin’ up to class. I told Bull ‘cause I was pissed, like anyone would’a been, and Lavellan of ‘course found out. An’ he set up this stupid system.”

“I didn’t know you were that close.”

“Yeah,” Sera trailed off, when Hawke looked up to check she was still there he couldn’t help smiling a little at the expression on Sera’s face. “They’re not that bad. Once ya get to know ‘em. Like that new sport teacher, he’s cool. Cassandra practically worships ‘im and normally that’s a bad sign. Like, she hates you, Mr H, but you’re awesome.”

Hawke’s smile grew, he tipped his imaginary hat. “Thanks.”

“Are ya gonna pick up your phone? It’s annoyin’.”

 _And there was the Sera he was used to_. She’d gotten her own phone out and Hawke knew her well enough to know that was the conversation over until the lesson started in about ten minutes.

Two of the texts were from Varric, one asking where he was then another fifteen minutes later with a run down of what he’d missed at briefing. Merrill had apparently sat at Isabela’s feet during the whole thing whilst Isabela plaited her hair. Carver had almost fallen asleep. Anders hadn’t turned up but Fenris had. He had another text from Merrill asking why he wasn’t there but Fenris was, ‘has Anders found out?’. That was baffling but most things Merrill said were confusing, they made sense once you had all the context of her thoughts but otherwise not so much. She meant well though. Finally, there was one from Anders, asking if he wanted to get lunch together. That was the only one he replied to, shooting off a message saying he wanted them all to meet in Aveline’s room for lunch ‘cause he had some news. Anders’ reply was instantaneous, asking if everything was okay. Hawke let it be, he didn’t want to go crying to Anders. Or anyone.

***

The GCSE class was only an hour, compared to his normal two hour A-Level classes, which meant he got a whole hour to either be extremely productive before his next lesson or an hour to relax. Maybe nap. That was tempting. Sera had left him a crude drawing based on the poem they’d just looked at as she went out the door. Stick figures, what he believed was a suitcase and then a very large cake. He’d had worse from her. He’d kept them all, of course, but this one he could at least add to one of his display boards at the back of the class. They were pretty sparse, just some laminated quotes that Fenris had loved from his favourite books and poems, some of Hawke’s favourites too. There were a few whole class pictures too, laminated and pinned in place, Hawke standing in the middle of them all. His favourite classes, the ones who’d really tried and cared about the subject and the content. He missed them. Though his current A-Level class was one of his favourites, even if they. There was a timid knock on the door. He called for them to come in, preoccupied holding the paper against the board and rummaging in the pin pot with one hand.

“Everything okay?” He called when no one spoke even after the door closed again, he swore louder than intended when a pin dug under a nail. “If you’re a student, you didn’t hear that!”

“What are you doing?” Fenris’ low voice was tinged with a speck of bemusement.

He’d missed that voice. He finally got a grip on a pin and hurriedly tacked the drawing in place, spinning on his heel as soon as he could, smiling hesitantly. Fenris sported a matching smile, hands tucked into pockets. Like he was trying to feign relaxation, forgetting that Hawke had seen every possible version of him and could read him like an open book, even when he just wanted to hide everything away so as not to burden anyone else.

“Sprucing up the place,” Hawke said with a shrug, part of him wanted desperately to ask for the fifth time what was going on but he knew it’d just prompt Fenris to insulate himself even further. “I- Did you need something?”

“No,” Fenris ducked his head, his hair being loose dropped to shield his eyes from view. “Yes. I…Can we talk?”

“Always,” Hawke nodded, despite knowing Fenris wasn’t looking.

***

Fenris doesn’t make any intimation towards taking a seat so Hawke chooses not to offer up the desk chair as he had was becoming used to doing. Instead, he left it empty and chose to lean against the bookshelf opposite the doorway. He kept his posture as relaxed as possible, easy-going and open. Fenris, on the other hand, stood stock still, barely three steps from the door; he bounced between standing, back ram-rod straight, with his hands held still at his sides and keeping one hand at his side whilst the other knotted itself around the favour tied to his wrist. For the first time, as they stood watching each other, Hawke wondered how Fenris had gotten the red cloth past the uniform guidelines. Not that they were outrageously strict, Isabela and Varric were blatant evidence that the policy fell short more times than not, but surely the favour was troublesome when trying to teach someone how to do a forward roll or something? Though, every time he’d come across ( _admired_ ) Fenris teaching, he’d had his hair tied back with the favour.

“I thought they knew,” Fenris shifted his weight after he spoke, like he was trying to be ready to leave at the slightest intonation of…something…

“So did I,” Hawke replied, laughing a little to try and ease the tension, “It’s not like I’ve never talked about you before.”

“Then how?”

Now it was Hawke’s turn to shuffle his feet, his face heating up though it’d hopefully be hidden by his beard. “They knew about you. They knew of you as my husband but I don’t think they ever put two and two together, you know?”

Fenris considered this for a moment, stilling in his anxious fidgeting. “Your siblings knew too, surely they would have let slip?”

“Yes, you’d have thought, wouldn’t you? I spoke to them last night. Turns out Carver’s been stirring the pot, shall we say. He claims it was just an omission of information. I’m more inclined to believe he’s laughing himself silly over it all.” Hawke cracked a smile himself but Fenris just scowled, crossing his arms sharply.

“It is not a laughing matter,” Fenris snapped.

Hawke’s smile slid into a frown and he took a step forward, trying to catch his husband’s elusive gaze. “Fenris…I’m sorry, I didn’t realise this was upsetting you so much. We’ll make sure it’s all cleared up at lunch, I promise.”

But Fenris’ shoulders didn’t drop, the scowl didn’t smooth away, rather the man’s frustration seemed to turn inwards. Fenris’ fingers digging into his own arms too hard for Hawke’s liking so he took the remaining steps until he was close enough to hold a hand out. An offering. A mooring post in the storm that was Fenris’ own emotions. They’d weathered it before, they would again and they could certainly clear things up now if Fenris would just _talk_ to him.

“It’s not just them not knowing,” Hawke spoke softly, lowering his hand when Fenris turned away with a low growl of anger, “is it?”

The heavy silence was answer enough to his question so he waited.

“How is it,” Fenris began slowly, weighing each word, he turned to look over his shoulder to meet Hawke’s eyes, at last, “that you’re so…observant now but you cannot see what’s right in front of you when it comes to…”

“…to?”

Fenris sneered as he spoke the name, “Anders. Hawke, this is what I mean!”

“I’m sorry!” Hawke exclaimed, fanning his hands out in a show of surrender. “What _about_ Anders? What is it I’m not getting?”

“He’s in love with you!” Fenris spun, closing the space between them to poke Hawke in the chest, not enough to hurt, never enough to do any damage. Which was all well and good when his words had stopped Hawke short, mouth open to protest and mind caught in a freefall.

“What?” He breathed out, searching Fenris’ eyes for any hint that this was a joke. Not that this was anywhere near the realms of his husband’s sense of humour. Or his.

“He wants you,” Fenris repeated, some of the fire leaving his tone to be replaced be exasperated resignation, “has for a long time, I expect. Have you truly never noticed how much he looks at you? How he searches you out so often? He blatantly flirts with you, Hawke, --”

“Garrett..” He corrected absently, a reflex.

“He is the only one here, other than the students, who calls you by your first name. The only one.”

Hawke held up a hand, as if to say ‘haha, I’m not as mind-numbingly oblivious as you think’. “I have noticed that. I just thought it was ‘cause he thought going by my surname amongst friends was stupid.”

Fenris sighed, catching Hawke’s lifted hand with one of his own and lacing their fingers together. “In truth, I should have known something like this would happen. It took me literally sitting in your lap for you to truly realise that I _wanted_ this too.”

“In my defence, we’d gotten off to a mixed start. I was just being—”

“Careful,” Fenris finished for him, one corner of his lips quirked up in the makings of a smile. “I know.”

Hawke nodded, still processing through everything that had been said until one part stuck out and he grinned devilishly down at his husband. “So…I’m to believe that this whole thing, was because you’re jealous? I’m not sure whether to be insulted or take it as a compliment.”

“I think you know exactly how you’d take it,” Fenris’ frown was back, but without any force, “ _if_ it were. Which it’s most certainly not.”

“No, no. I’m quite sure it is.”

“I’m not jealous, Hawke!”

“Garrett.”

Fenris narrowed his eyes at him, Hawke smiled and kissed his forehead.

“ _Garrett_. I’m not jealous. I’m just…I dislike that he so clearly does not care that you are married. You wear your ring clearly, you’ve told me how you speak of me to them all. He knew of my existence, even if he doesn’t understand who I am yet. Yet he still pursued you as if it all didn’t matter. He- He holds no respect for our marriage.”

Hawke nodded, bringing his free hand up to push back the hair falling in Fenris’ eyes, leaving his fingers resting against his cheek afterwards. A swell of warmth settled over him when Fenris leaned into the touch instead of pulling away.

“Which is all the more difficult for you because of how much it means to you?”

“I…yes. I suppose so.”

“Fenris, my love, you must know that _I know_. I do. I may not ever be able to understand as well as you, I wouldn’t dare to say I could because I know that’s not possible. But as much as I can, as much I physically am able, I understand why this matters to you. I would never treat us or the commitment and what it means as a- a _joke_ or insignificant. Ever.”

Fenris’ eyes had widened somewhere in amongst Hawke’s speech, his lips parted that small amount that meant he wasn’t focusing on keeping on his toes. His whole focus was on Hawke. Walls lowered and emotions clear as day. Hawke smiled shyly, resisting the urge to self-consciously shrug under the intensity of Fenris’ gaze.

“I…” Fenris swallowed, licked his lips and started again. “Garrett, I…”

Hawke’s smile grew as Fenris covered the hand on his cheek with his own, fingers cold and familiar on Hawke’s.

“I don’t give a fig about Anders, Fenris. I don’t. I haven’t for even a minute.”

“He’s your friend, I would not begrudge you that.” Fenris said hurriedly, voice gruff and Hawke couldn’t resist the urge to pull him closer until their foreheads were almost touching.

“Yes, okay, I guess he’s my friend. Definitely a co-worker. But _you_ …”

Fenris hummed and stole a kiss, slow and sweet, uncaring of who may walk by and see through the small window in the door. _‘Let them see’_ , Hawke thought as he gave everything he had to Fenris, to his husband, to do with as he wished.

***

Surprisingly enough, Hawke was not the first one to arrive in Aveline’s classroom at lunch. Aveline wasn’t there, apparently on a run for food, but Donnic was sitting in one of the chairs behind a desk. He had his laptop in front of him and it looked as if he and Aveline had had a study date during their free period. Hawke momentarily thought about proposing the idea to Fenris then remembered that Fenris taught sport and he wasn’t sure how much theory went in to sport. Besides, all his spare periods lined up with Varric’s (for the most part) and it he ditched Varric for his husband, he’d be in trouble. With his friend and Fenris who strongly disliked when Hawke was self-sacrificial, especially _for_ Fenris. Donnic waved him into the classroom and greeted him cheerfully, thankfully not asking why they were all gathering there. Yet, anyway.

Hawke’s plan had been to sit near the front of the classroom so he could see all his friends as they made their announcement except that would mean clearing all of Aveline’s organised notes and papers and pens. Not something he fancied risking. So he took the desk next to Donnic’s, swung the chair round in front and settled there, one eye on the door. Merrill and Varric were the next to arrive, chatting and laughing. They also brought chairs round to the front to start forming a little circle with Hawke. Isabela turned up next, bickering with Aveline and carrying a couple more boxes of food. She handed two of them to Hawke, saying she’d ‘bumped’ into Fenris outside his office and offered to get them both food if Fenris agreed to owe her a favour. Hawke dreaded to think what favour Isabela would call in, it wouldn’t be good but even still, it was nice to hear that Fenris had at least made one good friend. Isabela sat on the desk, toes resting on Hawke’s chair under his thigh. Merrill chose to sit on the floor again, her back against the newly appeared Bethany’s legs. Carver had copped out of the meeting, claiming he had another meeting with a student and it wasn’t like he needed to hear what he already knew. He’d still asked Hawke to record everyone’s reactions for him. Hawke had just kicked his shins.

Anders turned up without any fanfare, slipping into the room with various ‘hello’s and a ‘yes, I haven’t forgotten to eat, Varric’. He caught Hawke’s eye and smiled, holding the eye contact for longer than Hawke thought was classed as socially normal but he’d always brushed it off as just a quirk of Anders. It was just how he was. Friendly and tactile. But now he was painfully aware that maybe that wasn’t the case at all. He was spared from trying to analyse how Anders interacted with the rest of their group by Fenris’ arrival. Everyone in the room turned to look at him, earning themselves a raised eyebrow and a grunted ‘hello’. Everyone but Hawke turned back to what they were doing after saying hi back. Varric shifted along one chair into the one Merrill had moved then never sat in so that Fenris could sit next to Hawke. Fenris seemed more at ease, less occupied with his thoughts than he had before their…discussion earlier. Hawke smiled brightly at him and handed over the box of food before taking a fortifying breath. He cleared his throat, semi-awkwardly.

“You trying to get their attention, Hawke?” Varric asked, laughing at his piss-poor attempt.

“No, no,” Hawke excused, whilst Fenris muffled his own laugh, “just clearing my throat.”

“Ah, all good then. ‘Cause if you were, I’d say you’re nervous about something,” Varric continued, Hawke did his best to scowl at him.

“You do it then, if you’re so confident.”

Varric chuckled and stood, sending a wink Hawke’s way before clapping his hands together. Loudly. The room fell instantly quiet, their slightly disjointed circle of friends all looking up at their little corner.

“Hawke has something to say.” Varric announced, adding a deep bow as an extra, teasing flourish.

Hawke waved sheepishly at them all. Aveline blushed and looked down at her food, good, at least she was also embarrassed about this. They could be laughed at together. ‘Cause it wasn’t like they were going to laugh at Fenris.

“So! Just wanted to uh clarify something. This something was brought to my attention recently.”

“Yesterday,” Fenris muttered. Isabela snorted, covering her laugh with her hand. Hawke flicked her ankle.

“Yes, right. Yesterday it was brought to my attention by our insightful friend, Aveline, that—”

“You didn’t have to _name_ me, Hawke.”

“—That you all seem to think I’m having an affair. An affair _with my husband_.”

Hawke’s smile was smug as he watched the various faces around the room parse out what he meant, some getting there much quicker than others. Merrill, for example, seemed to be struggling to infer what he meant; Hawke was now beginning to wonder if she’d known about the affair rumour in the first place. Anders on the other hand, was looking between him and Fenris with slightly panicky eyes like he expected to be yelled at. Hawke took the moment to glance over at Fenris, who was still eating with calm movements, but the grin in his eyes as he watched Anders had a hint of malice. Well, as long as they weren’t screaming at each other. Merrill tipped her head back, listening to whatever Bethany was saying. Aveline was catching Donnic up on what had happened yesterday. Donnic, ever the brilliant man he was, likened it to the marigolds incident and Aveline dropped her head into her hands. His pleased state of being ended abruptly when Isabela pinched the back of his neck.

“Isabela!” He cried, rubbing a hand over the skin and twisting to glare at her. “You already knew! Why’d you do that?”

“Well they didn’t know I knew until you just told them!”

He rolled his eyes at her good-naturedly, she really hadn’t pinched very hard, and turned back just in time to see Anders silently close the door behind him.

“Hawke.” Varric said, looking across Fenris.

“I’ve seen,” Hawke reaches to rest a hand on Fenris’ knee, feeling him sit back again, “I’ll go in a minute.”

***

Anders hadn’t gone far. Just down the couple of corridors to his own empty classroom, the door closed. Hawke left it cracked open behind him. The other man startled from his tense pose at the window, looking over his shoulder and turning fully when he saw who it was.

“Surprised to see me?” Hawke teased but Anders’ smile was pitying at best.

“I thought if anyone would follow it’d be him. Come to gloat.”

Hawke frowned a little at that, tilting his head to the side. “Fenris isn’t the gloating type. A little protective, yes. But so am I.”

Anders doesn’t speak and whilst Hawke wanted to fix whatever had broken without his notice in their friendship, he’d also rather be laughing with their friends and his husband.

“I’m sorry, for what it’s worth, Anders. I’m sorry that it’s come to be such a mess.”

Anders sighed and shook his head. “No, I’m the one who should be apologising. I knew you were married. I just…I thought maybe, this once, I’d be the one someone would set aside everything else for.”

“And you’ll find that person!” Hawke said, aiming for reassuring. “But maybe not with someone who’s married. I know that it’s not the most upheld tradition these days but for Fenris and I…for us it’s…it’s everything.”

“All the more reason for me to apologise.” Anders’ smile was void of actual joy. “I understand if you hate me. He certainly does.”

“You know, it’d help if you’d give in and say his name.” Anders just hummed, non-committal. “I accept your apology. There was a miscommunication. I should’ve realised I was giving you mixed signals too. Now we just make sure we do better in the future. Though, yes, he does sort of hate you.”

Anders did laugh that time and Hawke smiled. They’d be back to friends, proper friends, in no time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is a longer chapter than normal? If so, hope y'all liked it but I'm not sure how often they'll be this long.   
> It's back to college for exam season tomorrow so chapters may become shorter. Just two more plot points I want to wrap up so maybe there'll be 10 chapters in full? Who knows! Not me! :D


	6. Wednesday - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi y'all! I'm splitting this day into parts because I think it's going to be the last day! Thank you all for supporting this for so long and during this long break, with exams started and waiting for feedback on my book now I should have more time to put into the finale of this! Happy reading!
> 
> Hawke may have forgotten to keep track of national holidays...

Amidst all the excitement of the past week and a bit, Hawke didn’t think he could be blamed for forgetting about the imminent holiday and all it entailed. It wasn’t like the winter holidays where college was decorated and he practically gave up on teaching the kids anything proper in the last week, instead getting them to write winter themed stories. There were some dark souls in his classes. He was never going to look at holes in the snow the same way again thanks to an old pupil’s ‘Bloody Chamber’ inspired story one year. Just the thought of it was enough to send shivers up his back.

 

“If you’d stop kicking off the blankets,” Fenris’ gruff voice was pure gravel, amusement paving the way even as his words suggested otherwise, “in the night, then you wouldn’t be cold in the morning. Neither would I.”

 

Hawke blinked his eyes open, watching the dancing dust flitting about lazily in the sunbeam from between their mostly closed curtains. Fenris was right, not that he was going to tell him that. He did have an unfortunate habit of kicking the covers down the bed whilst sleeping but it was hardly his fault that he ran hot. Fenris certainly had never _actually_ complained. And if he did, Hawke would willingly point out that Fenris curled up around his back each night to use him as a hot water bottle effectively so would he truly want Hawke to run as cold as him? No, probably not. Fenris’ fingers were running across his chest, little circles in his chest hair. His other hand was pressed against Hawke’s back like normal; they’d tried sleeping with his arm stretched out under Hawke but Fenris _hated_ when his arm went numb. Hated feeling trapped. Hawke couldn’t care less how they slept, they could sleep on other sides of the room in separate beds as long as he knew Fenris was safe and nearby. Hawke yawned and stretched his legs out, smirking to himself when Fenris tried to snatch the covers back up to their chests with a growl.

 

“Did you say you were cold, love?” Hawke asked, nudging Fenris’ hip with his elbow before rolling over to face his husband.

 

Fenris’ face was a picture. His lips twitching with contained mirth, his eyes narrowed in suspicion and his hair absolutely everywhere. He was beautiful. A picture to be framed and treasured forever. Not in a gallery, Fenris would hate that. But in a family scrapbook. Or the sort of photo one keeps in their wallet to carry with them everywhere they go.

 

“Happy Love Day, Garrett,” Fenris said, his smile breaking out as he leaned in for a kiss, sweet and slow.

 

Garrett spent those blissful seconds, not marvelling at how amazing his husband was but processing what his husband had said and coming to the painful conclusion that he’d forgotten completely about Love Day. The stupidly named day that sold badly worded cards once a year with flowers and small, bite-size cakes. And was the day they’d finally gotten together all those years ago. Love Day. The day to celebrate all kinds of love. Platonic, familial, romantic. The day Fenris was finally going to make him sleep on the couch for one of his numerous fuck-ups. Though he didn’t think any had been as bad as forgetting an anniversary that was on a damned _national holiday_. When Fenris pulled away again, there was a slightly expectant curve to his eyebrows. Hawke wanted to kick his past-self in the shins. Repeatedly.

 

“Happy anniversary, Fenris,” he said, relieved as Fenris smiled back at him before leaving the bed in a show of energy that Hawke wished he had half of. “Where are you going?”

 

“We still have work,” Fenris said without looking back, pulling on a robe, “I’m going to make breakfast.”

 

Hawke flopped onto his back as Fenris left the room. He was fucked. It was basically tradition for him to make those little chocolate brownie cakes for Fenris to come home from work to. Except he couldn’t even salvage this by making them because they both had college at the same times. The ones from the store didn’t follow the same recipe and were obviously different. If his mother lived closer he’d have made an emergency call and asked her to bake them but as it was she was off living in the north whilst all her children had moved south. Where one went the others followed apparently extended well into mature adulthood. Who’d have thought?

 

“Pancakes okay?” Fenris called, from the kitchen he expected.

 

“You’re making it _very_ difficult not to just take the day off work, love!”

 

He just about heard his husband’s scoff, likely accompanied by an eye roll and light blush. Bethany might have baked for him, she was a good baker even if he’d have owed her something later. But again, she was in college everyday of the week. Most of his friends were and the only one out of the lot who baked that he wasn’t related to was—

 

He dropped his phone on the carpeted floor before he managed to unlock it, half hanging off the bed sideways as he scrolled through the contacts and held it up to his ear.

 

“Merrill?”

 

“Hawke!” Yeah, that was her. “Is everything okay? Has something happened? It’s just you don’t normally call this early, or ever really. I’ve never really seen you call anyone, actually? That’s weird isn’t it? That’s got to be weird.”

 

“Merrill, I’m fine.”

 

“ _Oh_ , so it’s Fenris? Oh, Hawke, I thought you two had sorted it out? He hasn’t left has he?”

 

“What? No! We’re fine! Well, we will definitely be fine if you could do me a teensy favour? Pretty please? I know it’s your day off but I really don’t have anyone else to ask.”

 

There was a scuffling on the other end of the phone, a plaintive mew from what he presumed was the kitten Isabela had gotten Merrill last year on Love Day, and then a door shut. Merrill’s voice was hushed when she spoke again.

 

“Anything, Hawke. What is it you need doing?”

 

He tilted his head, despite knowing she couldn’t see him. “Merrill, why are you asking that like you think I’m going to ask you to hide a body or something?”

 

Merrill’s laugh was as sugary sweet as her, tinkling and shy. “I just didn’t want to wake Isabela up, is all, silly.”

 

“Ah. Right. My bad,” Hawke dropped his free hand to the floor to help his balance. “If I send you a recipe, can you bake something for me? And bring it in at lunch time?”

 

“Sure thing, Hawke.”

 

“I’ll pay you back for the ingredients and such, I just need to surprise Fenris with them but with everything going on lately I completely forgot.” He had no idea why he was explaining this to Merrill when she was notoriously bad with keeping secrets but she meant well, and Hawke hated to think he was just using her. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”

 

“Oh, it’ll be fun, don’t worry. I didn’t have anything planned for today anyway, Isabela’s got to teach today anyway so I’d have had plenty of free time regardless.”

 

“Thank you. I’ll see you at lunch then?”

 

“See you then, Hawke.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading so far! 
> 
> Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see before I wrap this up in the next couple chapters, I'll see what I can do.
> 
> As always, come find me on tumblr and subscribe to this fic if you want email notifications on chapters!


	7. Character Glossary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> NOT A PROPER CHAPTER! I'm sorry! Please forgive me! If you are getting this in a notification email 'cause you subscribed to this fic, I apologise profusely for giving you false hope for a new chapter already. 
> 
> This is a little glossary (likely to be expanded over time) of characters in this AU and why I've made some decisions surrounding them.

** Teachers / DA2 **

**Fenris – Sport**

_Because he is a warrior, he was made to be an intimidating ideal, was forced into it, and he took that back, for himself. He took Danarius’ ‘wishes’ for him and turned them against the man. The given strength and power that was painted by Danarius as a gift was Danarius’ downfall because Fenris is free, he is a person and he does as he so pleases. He wants to pass his strength on, to help others protect and live for themselves without (or at least with less) fear._

**Varric – Politics**

_Our man Varric. He, at first, seemed the best person to teach English literature or language or creative writing, however I was then reminded of something Merril and Isabela (I think) allude to. Varric has contacts everywhere in Kirkwall. He pays the Coterie and everyone else off to protect Merrill and he knows how to spin a story to get them all out of (or in to) trouble. He knows systems of power and he knows when to bend to them and when to break them. I think he’d be amazing at passing that on._

**Aveline – Criminology**

_She was in the police force for a long time until she put herself into danger to protect a junior officer. Her back was severely damaged and she was paralysed from the waist down, thus the wheelchair. She wasn’t in the police with an aim to uphold the law though, she was in the police to put away criminals. To protect people, innocent people, in an active way. Just as she joins the guard in Kirkwall. She now teaches criminology to put her knowledge of criminals to good use and to inspire those who otherwise wouldn’t have the confidence or knowledge to follow the same calling._

**Merril – Ancient History**

_This one is a little simpler. Merrill mourns the loss of history over time, she loathes that her culture was lost and her history was washed away by the ‘victors’ (so called, not truly). As such she has dedicated her life to learning and researching and sharing the history that remains. She passes this on, as is her dream to restore her clan’s ancient history._

**Hawke – English Lit + GCSE English Lit Resit**

_For a start, have you_ seen _the Amell estate library? The desks that belong to Hawke that are always covered in books? That man reads! He loves to read and he loves to teach. He teaches Fenris to read and write in Kirkwall and I’d be willing to bet that Hawke also had a hand in teaching his siblings back in Lothering. Hawke loves to read and it’s about time he got to do something he loved._

**Isabela – Geography**

_Where hasn’t Isabela been? Tevinter, probably. But other than that, she travels! She knows the places she goes inside out, she sails and explores! She loves to find new places, she’s constantly roving around the world. But nowadays, you need money for that. So now she teaches of her exploits, with not as much censoring in her tales as parents would probably hope for._

**Anders – Medical Science**

_He’s a healer, through and through._

**Carver – Law**

_Carver Hawke. The younger sibling. The one in the shadows who just wants to do something for himself but also wants to help, wants to protect his family. Even if that means obeying laws under the Templars that he’s blatantly disrespected in the past ( ~~with relish~~ ) just so he can protect his family from the inside. Sacrificial, is a word that comes to mind when I think of Carver. He sacrifices a lot to keep their family semi-functioning. He’s the glue behind the seams whilst Hawke is the beams holding things together on show. Carver teaches law so his students can uphold and defend it but also so they know how to work around it, to stay safe in the grey areas. _

**Bethany – Psychology**

_Bethany is caring and empathetic. Compassionate. Sweet. A badass who doesn’t step down for anyone (except her family and maybe Varric). She understands a lot about people and as such, I believe she’d have been interested in studying psychology and would teach it._

* * *

 

** Students / DAI **

**Sera – GCSE English Literature Resit + Sport + Geography + Chemistry**

_Our girl… isn’t the most eloquent in her language and strikes me as exactly the person who wouldn’t care about an English literature GCSE because it doesn’t actually achieve much for her and as such has to resit at A-Level. So here she is, one of Hawke’s favourite students. She’s athletic, of course, and as such takes sport. She also doesn’t stay in one place long and I think she’d either love Isabela to the ends of the earth or hate her guts. One or the other, so she takes geography. Chemistry is a link to the use of poisons and potions as a rogue._

**Dorian – English Literature + Physics + History**

_Ah Dorian. The arrogant, loveable, slightly traumatised, quite controversial man of the hour. He literally spends all his free time in the library at Skyhold. He takes English Lit. Fight me. Magic right, time and space and stuff seems to me, at least, to be very physics-y. You learn about space. You learn about time and lenses and theories. I originally thought chemistry but I think physics is better for Dorian. History, again quite simple, he knows his country’s recent history and is trying to work off that to make his country better, to atone for past cruelties. He can try, we’ll have to see how it goes._

**Mahanon Lavellan – English Literature + Politics + Ancient History**

_He reads! He likes to read! It’s a fact (for me anyway)! Politics, easy, he’s sent as an embassy sort of person to the Conclave and then becomes the Inquisitor. He’s taking politics. Also, on the subject of game material, in this AU Lavellan has already lost his arm. That’s it. Notice over. He also takes ancient history because he respects and adores his culture, he wants to preserve it and I think this is a subject he’d enjoy learning more about._

**Cassandra – Sport + Law + Religious Studies**

_She’s a warrior, she fights, she’s cool like that. She is also a firm believer and as such, I think, she would take religious studies. And law. ‘Cause she’s all about keeping the peace and upholding the many, many rules._

**Cole – English Literature + Psychology + Biology**

_I like to imagine Cole reads. I think it’d be a past time he enjoys and a way for him to understand people better so he can help them. I also think Cole would take psychology because he wants to help and to do that effectively he needs to understand why people do the things they do and how. Biology is a much more tenuous one. I think he’d take biology over medical science along the theme of helping people because Cole is a rogue, he knows exactly where to hit to disarm/knock out/kill a person which relies on a knowledge of the body and to be able to see and recognise pain, he would need/want to know how the body works in order to help recognise things. He looks more for the pain first, rather than prioritising a medical solution._

**Solas – English Literature + Ancient History + Religious Studies**

_Solas. Sooooolas. This man. I…I have slightly less mixed feelings for him than for Anders, but they’re still mixed. So. Solas takes English literature because he’s a pretentious guy who knows a lot (too much, he knows too much far too easily) and wants some easy A’s. Thus he takes these subjects. He excels at them (except for the moments he knows something better than the exam board but won’t get credit ‘cause exam boards are like that)._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to do a little profile for Biscuit the dog. If you want to know anything about Biscuit, or anyone else I've forgotten, comment below to let me know <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!
> 
> Comments welcome! Prompts too (no NSFW).
> 
> Come and find my original work [TheWordForest](https://thewordforest.tumblr.com/) !


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